Randy Phillips

Anschutz Entertainment Group has parted ways with Randy Phillips, the chief executive of its live entertainment arm AEG Live, the company said Monday. Jay Marciano, AEG's chief operating officer, has been named AEG Live's chairman. The exit of Phillips, who joined the company in 2002, is part of a restructuring of the division's management, in which Marciano will take a more active role in leading the subsidiary with a team of executives. ...

Anschutz Entertainment Group has parted ways with Randy Phillips, the chief executive of its live entertainment arm AEG Live, the company said Monday. Jay Marciano, AEG's chief operating officer, has been named AEG Live's chairman. The exit of Phillips, who joined the company in 2002, is part of a restructuring of the division's management, in which Marciano will take a more active role in leading the subsidiary with a team of executives. ...

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed the case against two ranking executives in the Michael Jackson wrongful death suit Monday but ruled that there was enough evidence to let jurors decide the lawsuit against their employer, concert promoter and producer AEG Live. When the months-long case finally goes to the jury, the stakes could be enormous. Attorneys for Jackson's mother and three children presented testimony that Jackson could have earned as much as $1.5 billion had he not died on the eve of his "This Is It" comeback tour.

Simon Cowell is quietly looking for a buyer for his Beverly Hills trophy house, marketing it outside the Multiple Listing Service. Cowell, who paid $15.5 million for the gated estate, is asking $20 million, according to local real estate agents. He bought the Trousdale Estates-area house two years ago from Randy Phillips of concert-promotion powerhouse AEG Live in an off-market deal. Phillips has a passion for restoring midcentury homes and had planned to move into the 1966 Hal Levitt-designed showcase with work completed.

October 26, 2011 | By Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times

In his three decades in the music industry, Randy Phillips founded a successful record label, worked with stars from Prince to Celine Dion and propelled his concert promoting company, AEG Live, to annual revenues of more than $1 billion. But he is likely to be remembered best as Michael Jackson's last boss, and it was that role that took Phillips to the witness stand Tuesday at the trial of the pop icon's doctor. For two hours, Phillips walked jurors through "This Is It," Jackson's planned comeback concert series, from its genesis in a Bel-Air hotel suite to a final rehearsal at Staples Center that left a normally cynical music executive with goose bumps and his star performer with a great confidence.

At the height of his career, Michael Jackson had it all. International fame. Grammy-winning records. Unimaginable wealth. But in the final months of his life, as the King of Pop planned his ill-fated comeback in London, one of his biggest motivators was just to make enough money to buy his own home where he could raise his children, according to testimony Wednesday. Jackson broke down in tears as he confided that he was tired of "living like vagabonds" - shuttling his family between a Las Vegas rental and a Bel-Air hotel - said Randy Phillips, concert promoter AEG Live's chief executive who has spent days testifying in a wrongful-death suit filed by the singer's family.

In a move that raised the specter of previous concert cancellations and no-shows over the last dozen years, Michael Jackson has rescheduled the opening date of "This Is It," his 50-show comeback performance set for London's O2 Arena. Citing challenges presented by a "massive and technically complex show," "This Is It" director Kenny Ortega and Randy Phillips, chief executive of the concerts' producer, AEG Live, said that the first of Jackson's concerts would now kick off on July 13, pushed back from its original start date of July 8. Three make-up performances will take place in March 2010.

Confronted with emails he wrote five days before Michael Jackson's death, the chief executive of AEG Live admitted Monday his characterizations of Conrad Murray, the doctor who gave the singer the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol, were wrong. Randy Phillips testified on the 25th day of testimony in the wrongful-death suit brought by Jackson's mother and three children against AEG Live and two of its executives, including Phillips. After Kenny Ortega, the director of Jackson's 50 scheduled concerts in London, wrote an email saying Jackson needed psychiatric help, Phillips responded: FULL COVERAGE: AEG wrongful death trial “I had a lengthy conversation with Dr. Murray, who I am gaining immense respect for as I get to deal with him more.

AEG was paying Michael Jackson's manager $100,000 a month, an arrangement that an attorney on Tuesday suggested was unusual and possibly a conflict since managers were typically supposed to represent their clients. Brian Panish, an attorney for Jackson's mother and children, who are suing AEG Live, showed the jury a contract that manager Tohme Tohme signed with AEG that said he was supposed to assist the company. But Randy Phillips, AEG Live's chief executive, testifying for the fifth day, said he didn't think there was a conflict because Jackson also signed the agreement.

Michael Jackson's anticipated comeback tour was in danger of being canceled after a promoter received troubling emails about the singer's health and mental stability, the chief executive for the company producing the "This Is It" concerts acknowledged Friday. Randy Phillips, the top executive for AEG Live, said the sold-out London concerts could have been shut down after he received the emails, some that described the pop singer as being unprepared for the rigors of touring and being in feeble health.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed the case against two ranking executives in the Michael Jackson wrongful death suit Monday but ruled that there was enough evidence to let jurors decide the lawsuit against their employer, concert promoter and producer AEG Live. When the months-long case finally goes to the jury, the stakes could be enormous. Attorneys for Jackson's mother and three children presented testimony that Jackson could have earned as much as $1.5 billion had he not died on the eve of his "This Is It" comeback tour.

Michael Jackson's anticipated comeback tour was in danger of being canceled after a promoter received troubling emails about the singer's health and mental stability, the chief executive for the company producing the "This Is It" concerts acknowledged Friday. Randy Phillips, the top executive for AEG Live, said the sold-out London concerts could have been shut down after he received the emails, some that described the pop singer as being unprepared for the rigors of touring and being in feeble health.

As he tried to ready himself for his anticipated comeback tour, Michael Jackson was "trembling, rambling, obsessing" and eventually needed a mental health evaluation, the singer's tour director wrote in an email just six days before the pop star died. The email from Kenny Ortega was one of several that AEG Live executive Randy Phillips received in the days before Jackson's death that expressed concern over the singer's mental and physical health as the 2009 "This Is It" tour approached.

Michael Jackson's anticipated “This Is It” comeback tour was largely fueled by his desire to provide his children a home of their own, AEG Live's chief executive testified Wednesday. Randy Phillips described an emotional Halloween meeting with the pop star at a Bel Air hotel, with Jackson's three children running in and out of the room. It was the “first time Michael really told me why he wanted to go back to work,” Phillips told the court during questioning from AEG attorney Marvin Putnam.

At the height of his career, Michael Jackson had it all. International fame. Grammy-winning records. Unimaginable wealth. But in the final months of his life, as the King of Pop planned his ill-fated comeback in London, one of his biggest motivators was just to make enough money to buy his own home where he could raise his children, according to testimony Wednesday. Jackson broke down in tears as he confided that he was tired of "living like vagabonds" - shuttling his family between a Las Vegas rental and a Bel-Air hotel - said Randy Phillips, concert promoter AEG Live's chief executive who has spent days testifying in a wrongful-death suit filed by the singer's family.

The chief executive of AEG referred to his own boss as a “paranoid scrooge” in an email exchange when the entertainment firm was preparing to promote Michael Jackson's anticipated comeback tour in 2009. Tim Leiweke, long the public face of AEG and an influential figure in Los Angeles, made the reference to Phillip Anschutz in a March 13, 2009, email to Randy Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, the company's concert arm. “Phil can be such a paranoid scrooge," Leiweke wrote, "He wants to know why I am so certain that none of our key folks are taking Michael Jackson tickets and scalping them.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court judge presiding over the Michael Jackson wrongful-death suit admonished AEG Live's chief executive Monday to answer the questions the Jackson family's attorney asks him. Randy Phillips, who attended two years of law school, was on the stand for the fourth day when Judge Yvette Palazuelos halted proceedings and sent jurors out of the courtroom. She turned to the witness. “Mr. Phillips,” she said, “you need to answer the questions being asked without comments.

A makeup artist and longtime friend of Michael Jackson said Thursday that in the days before his death the singer was paranoid, repeated himself continuously and was so cold she bundled him in a blanket, put him in front of a space heater and hugged him to try to stop the shivering. Karen Faye, who had known Jackson for 27 years, said she took her concerns to an AEG executive five days before Jackson died of an overdose of the anesthetic propofol at his rented Holmby Hills mansion.

AEG was paying Michael Jackson's manager $100,000 a month, an arrangement that an attorney on Tuesday suggested was unusual and possibly a conflict since managers were typically supposed to represent their clients. Brian Panish, an attorney for Jackson's mother and children, who are suing AEG Live, showed the jury a contract that manager Tohme Tohme signed with AEG that said he was supposed to assist the company. But Randy Phillips, AEG Live's chief executive, testifying for the fifth day, said he didn't think there was a conflict because Jackson also signed the agreement.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court judge presiding over the Michael Jackson wrongful-death suit admonished AEG Live's chief executive Monday to answer the questions from the Jackson family's attorney. Randy Phillips, who attended two years of law school, was on the stand for the fourth day when Judge Yvette Palazuelos halted proceedings and sent jurors out of the courtroom. She turned to the witness. "Mr. Phillips," she said, "you need to answer the questions being asked without comments.